Cuyamel Fruit Company was one of the smaller firms of banana importers that attempted
unsuccessfully to compete with the all-powerful United Fruit. Founded in 1902, purchased by Samuel Zemurray in
1910, Cuyamel fought United Fruit for its corner of the market until 1929, when the two firms finally merged--and Sam
Zemurray came out on top as United's largest stockholder and eventually its president. By 1947, United Fruit's net
worth was in excess of $250 million, and the company controlled nearly a half-mile of dock space in the Port of New
Orleans for loading and unloading of its passengers, bananas and general freight.

In 1917, when Club Men of Louisiana in Charicature was published, Cuyamel Fruit was prospering. The
company's Secretary -Treasurer, Ernest Schultz (about whom almost nothing is known today) is having a "very busy
day," filling orders for Sam the Banana Man.

[William Keevil Patrick and Associates. Club Men of Louisiana in
Charicature. (East Aurora, N.Y., 1917)]

What the United Fruit Company has done in the way of developing banana-growing and other
industries in Middle America has been of inestimable value to New Orleans, for during the past half-century it has
opened up trade channels not only for its own products, but has supplied the facilities such as transportation, both water
and rail, for others to develop industries and trade. Moreover, acting as a goodwill agent, it has brought about a better
understanding between North Americans and Latin Americans, who, speaking a different language and living according
to different customs, were strangers in business and in their social life, although they did not live far apart. Thus, the
United Fruit Company is essentially a part of the history of the City of New Orleans.